1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to software utilities for backup of operating system hard disk drives and bare metal restore.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art exists that relates to making external USB attached hard disk drives bootable under various operating systems, including Windows.
Some of the art requires a person very skilled in computers, using a manual procedure(s) that may or may not work. Much of the prior art contains some element of folklore that may or may not allow an external disk to be bootable on all systems.
Nedprod.com contains instructions that could help a person to construct a bootable US drive.
911.cd dot net is a forum of experimenters who have had varying amounts of success in creating bootable USB drives.
Published patent application 20070136568 describes a methodology similar to that found on nedprod.com. 20070136568 Ding illustrates creating a bootable drive that will boot when a person skilled in the art changes the boot order of the computer system bios. 20070136568 illustrates booting an external USB drive to the point of a DOS prompt. It does not describe how a Graphical Users Interface (GUI) operating system can be executed. 20070136568 Ding will not allow the user to launch programs using a mouse point and click.
An issue with these software backup solutions is when the system disk becomes corrupted due to software errors or outside influences such as virus' the backed up image cannot be booted unless the full image backup disk is removed from its enclosure and placed into the system case. This task is often beyond the capabilities of the person who uses the system. Another approach some companies have taken is to provide a bootable CD or DVD that transfers the backed up image or the compressed image from the external hard disk drive onto the old system drive or new system drive. This method can take minutes per gigabyte to restore the system drive and if the data or applications residing on the image need to be accessed immediately the user is prevented from accessing them until the restore operation is completed which may take several hours. Embodiments overcome both issues of accessibility and quick restoration of the system.